2017 Bear Smart Highlights

A late frost and dry, hot weather impacted natural foods that bears rely on, making for an incredibly active and challenging bear season and straining resources.We were busy “putting out fires,” yet were able to achieve objectives and work towards advancing mission goals.Some highlights and accomplishments from the year include:

• Making recommendations to the City of Durango in August resulting in one, (replacing warnings for initial bear and trash violations with fines), being adopted.

• Partnering with CSU Extension and the City of Durango to collect pumpkins post-Halloween to keep from bears and other wildlife.405 pumpkins were collected over two days at two locations to be used as livestock feed by area ranchers.

• Implementing a new program having elementary school students monitor bear and other wildlife activity near their school via motion-activated trail cameras.We anticipate expanding this to multiple schools and grades next year.

• Greatly expanding the fruit gleaning program by partnering with Local First and others to develop a broader Regional Food Recovery Hub, of which fruit gleaning will be part. We hired the coordinator in late December!

• Assisting Mesa Verde National Park with educational outreach, materials and presentations to campers at park campgrounds in response to unprecedented bear and camper issues.

• Distributing 40-some bear-resistant containers as loaners to county residents experiencing issues with bears accessing trash, livestock feed, and more.We were the only venue in 2017 for county residents to obtain bear-resistant trash cans, other than purchasing one.